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Film review: Evidence

Another film in the seemingly endless found footage sub-genre Evidence does an alright job in creating an atmosphere for the most part before it careens of into an unexplained Cabin In The Woods style shift.

The quick synopsis – Ryan (Ryan McCoy) is making a documentary on his friend, Brett (Brett Rosenberg) about camping for the first time. However, once they begin camping, they discover that there is a mysterious figure that is hunting them. The setup is perfunctory and the idea of going camping and having a doco made about it is a very flimsy excuse to film the action but despite all this Evidence manages to work its way into the story and deliver something that for the most part entertains.

The acting is pretty decent from the four leads (McCoy, Rosenberg, Abigail Ritchie and Ashley Bracken) with the two girls required to do most of the heavy lifting. By heavy lifting I mean the unfortunate yet unavoidable (it seems) tropes at the moment – running with the camera, screaming and heavy breathing, I hate it so much yet can’t think of a way around so I’ll live with it for the moment. The thing I did like about Evidence is that the strange occurrences did just happen at night. The daytime discovery of a creature or possible creature was great, as well as the screams coming from the forest around them. Unfortunately there is a hell of a lot of randomness in Evidence that didn’t work for me. There is a moment where a guy comes totally out of nowhere talks about finding his dog and walks off, it makes no sense not even in terms of a chance encounter a guy walking through a camping area but carrying a gun I understand it was used to heighten the mystery and tension but it was not particularly well thought out.

Evidence cruises along for the first hour or so, writer Ryan McCoy and director Howie Askins seem to know their product and do manage to create a few chills. Then in 3rd act they go for broke, throwing just about everything they can at the screen, some of it is effective but overall it does get a bit confusing in some parts because the camera is whirling around so furiously you can only get a glimpse of what is actually happening and maybe that was the idea but for me there was far too much going on without any explanation at all.

Evidence certainly isn’t a bad film and at its best it is very good. I can appreciate the ambition however it does lack some cohesion which would’ve made the experience a lot more enjoyable. If you love your found footage stuff, then you will love this. If you’ve had enough of the found footage, then this won’t change your mind.